Tag Archives: Redding

Hey gang! We made it through another election, and fortunately, it will be two years until we need to endure another. Let’s take 4 days of that to drive from one very blue state to one surprisingly red state. Our drive will cover 2375 miles at a pace of 67.9 miles an hour, which means our first 3 days will conclude after 542.9 miles, leaving the final day for a lengthy 11 hour trek. Let’s hit the road and see some purple mountains majesty.

DAY ONE (Thursday)

Our drive will be of the type that is my absolute favorite: Absolutely perfect. high pressure has settled into the Great Basin, and it isn’t going anywhere for a while. We will be able to navigate across northern Nevada into the Salt Flats of Utah without any concern. Let’s call it a day in Grantsville, Utah, about a half hour west of Salt Lake City, but also, very, very isolated.

DAY TWO (Friday)
High pressure will be planted right over the Upper Midwest, and a light southerly flow across the Rockies will ensure we have more sun and even some unseasonably warm temperatures. We’ll arrive in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, right on the border with Nebraska.

DAY THREE (Saturday)
That ridge is going to keep shifting to the east, just like us. Driving through Nebraska will be a breeze, even without a breeze, as it will be pretty calm. We’ll pass through Omaha and make it to Menlo, Iowa.

DAY FOUR (Sunday)
This is going to be the longest day of our travels, but at least it is a Sunday, so traffic will be light. We’re hitting Chicago on a weekend, so it’s pretty fortunate. High pressure will be dissipating a bit, so there may be a few clouds through the Great Lakes, but this was a well timed 4 day trek through the country. No problems on any day.

The weather at Redding was quite pleasant during the middle of the week, even if the winds did get a bit gusty on Thursday as a system spun up to the east over Nevada. The temperatures were a bit fickle, however, as the low for Thursday didn’t get nearly as low as was projected, leading to some slightly elevated scores. VW and TWC tied for the win.

Today is a short, in-state road trip, only 225 miles from the Bay Area to Redding! A nice easy road trip in store for us today…. or IS it?! (Yes, it is)

It should be a fairly nice and mostly sunny morning as we escape the morning rush hour out of the San Fran area, eventually bypassing Sacramento and continuing northwards on I-5. Quiet weather and mostly sunny skies are expected for the duration of our short jaunt upstate, so hope you brought sunglasses for our day trip!

As a thunderstorm rolls overhead here in the Twin Cities, let’s head out west to Redding, CA, where there’s a far lower chance they’re experiencing thunderstorms.

At 835pm PDT, the temperature at Redding, CA was 75 degrees under fair skies. The remnants of a tropical system shifting up the west side of Baja California is spreading significant rains into the Desert Southwest, causing some localized flooding in far Southern CA and northern AZ. An upper-level low pressure system is sitting offshore the Pacific Northwest currently and looks to drop down over northern CA over the next 36 hours. At the surface, a low-pressure area looks to develop over NV/UT, enhancing the showers/thunderstorms developing over the Western US as the 2 weather features phase together, causing some areas of stronger rain/thunderstorms in eastern NV/UT then spreading northwards over ID/MT. Luckily, all of this activity is likely to stay east of Redding, and outside of just some high clouds, the next couple days will be rather pleasant!

FIO: Wednesday: Partly cloudy in the morning. High 84, Low 54.
Thursday: Clear throughout the day. High 76, Low 45.

Here we see some high clouds over the area shifting off to the northeast, with some more significant activity over Nevada, kicking up a couple scattered showers. Precip shifting over the Southwest will stay far away from the Redding area, leading to pleasant weather as we head into the later part of the week.

Warm air radiated away from Redding overnight, and Monday and Tuesday saw temperatures dip to 40 and below. Only one outlet was particularly close to pegging the morning low, and we were within 1 degree both Monday and Tuesday. The afternoon highs were a little bit closer to the mark all around, but it was those lows that clinched victory for us.
Actuals: Monday – High 66, Low 40
Tuesday – High 68, Low 35

We’re heading on a lengthy trip today. It will take about 4 1/2 days to make it from northern California to southeastern Michigan. The drive covers 2305 miles, which we will consume at a pace of 64.6mph, which means our goal distance will be about 516.7 miles a day, except for that last day when we slide into Jacson, of course.

DAY ONE (Tuesday)
The first few hours of our journey will take us through the Sierra Nevada mountains and through Lassen National Forest before turning south towards Reno. It should be very pleasant. Then we will get to the soul crushing emptiness of northern Nevada. We’l get to Deeth, which is east of Elko, and is pretty much just a ghost town. We will do so without seeing only partly cloudy skies and moderate temperatures.

DAY TWO (Wednesday)
A clipper sliding through Montana and the Dakotas is going to drag some cooler air into Wyoming, while a developing system in the 4 corners will make sure it stays in place. We won’t have any problems through Salt Lake City, but as we encounter this change in temperature, we may face some brisk winds between Salt Lake City and about Rock Springs, Wyoming. No snow in the forecast, fortunately, and things should calm down for the rest of the drive, which will culminate in rural Wyoming, east of Rawlins. The area is described on Google Maps as “Walcott” but you will be better off just saying “exit 238”

DAY THREE (Thursday)
Low pressure will continue its journey through the southern United States, which is great news for us. There will be another clipper sliding from Saskatchewan to western Ontario, but it will have no moisture to work with. We will get to the Denman, Nebraska, between Kearney and Grand Island, without a hitch.

DAY FOUR )Friday)
The clipper to our north will continue to ominously trudge southeast towards the Great Lakes, but the system to the south will become parked over the Gulf of Mexico. There really isn’t much of an opportunity for moisture to get drawn into the Clipper, and that will continue to be to our benefit as travelers. The drive through eastern Nebraska, Iowa and a part of Illinois will be quite manageable. We’ll make it to Sheffield, Illinois, which is 50 miles east of the Quad Cities for Friday night.

DAY FIVE (Saturday)
Anyone who lives in Michigan knows the situation all to well. An otherwise unimpressive clipper moves through the Great Lakes, and suddenly it’s laden with snow. Indeed, the heretofore dry clipper to our north will enhance over Michigan thanks to the lake of the same name. We will make it through Chicago unscathed, but from Portage, Indiana to about Battle Creek, Michigan, we’re likely to see some snow, perhaps heavy in the Benton Harbor area. There will still be some clouds to contend with in Jackson, but it doesn’t appear that the fetch will be strong enough for snow to continue.

Off to Northern California to see how the start of the new workweek will be. Will it be a dry drive to work, or will mother nature have a case of the Mondays?

At 153pm PST, the temperature at Redding, CA was 54 degrees under overcast skies and foggy conditions. A frontal system working through the Northwest US brought plenty of rain and dreary conditions to the Redding area today, with precip just now trailing off over the last couple of hours. Clouds should wind down over the evening as high pressure starts to work its way into the area overnight. For Monday and Tuesday, that high pressure takes hold over the area and leads to some rather pleasant conditions! Looks like sunny skies and temps warming into the mid and upper 60s over the next couple of days.

The thought was that a cold front moving into the west would drape some clouds over northern California and prevent things from warming up too much during the day. Well, the clouds came into Redding, but so did a great deal of cold air. Well, cool air. It didn’t even reach 70 yesterday when several outlets (ourselves included, dagnabbit) had the high hitting 80. Weatherbug kept it cool in Redding and had the top forecast for the city.

This is going to be a lengthy trip, 5 days from beginning to end. It’s a legitimate 5 days too, as the travel mileage is going to be 2636.5 miles. That puts us at 71.09mph (holy crap!). This then eventually will give us a whopping 568 miles a day. That’s a lot of distance to cover, so let’s get moving!

DAY ONE
A cold front is moving into the southern US, and will actually be through Columbus by the time we hit the road tomorrow. The cool northwesterly flow will scrub the atmosphere of any unpleasant elements. We will drive in wonderful weather all the way to Atkins, Arkansas, which is west of Conway, but not quite to Russellville.

DAY TWO
Our trip west will continue to be in wonderful weather. Oklahoma will be cool and calm as we pass into Texas. There really is no significant activity, but things will begin to heat back up in the Texas Panhandle, and the drive will end in the town of Vega.

DAY THREE
The drive through the rest of the Plains will be just as dull as the first two days. Activity will pick off when we hit the mountains near Gallup. There will be a chance for some showers and storms through the rest of the day in Arizona. Not much, but a monsoon compared to what we will have seen to this point. We will end the day in Flagstaff.

DAY FOUR
Our pattern of quiet weather will return on Monday, which will be nice, because population will increase as we take I-5 north through the Central Valley. Our day will end in Coalinga, in central California. One long day left!

DAY FIVE
A front, one of the continuous waves off the Pacific, will push some moisture into far northern California. Most of the day will be dry and sunny, but we will begin to see clouds, fog and some drizzle even after we get north of Willows. It won’t be the best of days when we arrive in Redding, but it won’t be too bad.

Redding is in far northern California, at the north end of their Central Valley. Not much can go on there, right?

At 953PM, PT Redding was reporting a temperature of 77 degrees with clear skies. The pattern across the west coast was quite docile, though there was a valley trough helping to trigger a light breeze.
Tomorrow looks to be another pleasant day, however a shortwaved trough, indicative of the seasonal strength of upper level flow patterns. will push into the Pacific Northwest on Saturday, with some moisture moving into the Central Valley very late in the day. Rain isn’t likely, but some high overcast and perhaps some morning fog are to be expected.
Tomorrow – Sunny, High 90, Low 63
Saturday – Increasing clouds with cooling temperatures, High 80, Low 59

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